Starting in July, QM is implementing a number of changes related to the course review process to improve the rigor of reviews and to provide more services to subscribers. These changes include naming protocols, new …

Updated Academic Partnerships Course Quality Review Rubric

Two of our affiliate organizations, Quality Matters and Online Learning Consortium (formerly The Sloan Consortium), have updated their Higher Education Rubric and Quality Scorecard. In light of these changes, we have updated our quality rubric that we use to review our partners’ courses. Please see a review of the changes below.

Quality Matters

In August, Quality Matter released the Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, Fifth Edition, 2014. The Rubric Committee, a group of online learning experts, spent nearly a year reviewing the latest research in order to provide an updated rubric for their subscribers.

The Quality Matters Higher Education Rubric, Fifth Edition, 2014 is a set of 8 general standards and 43 specific standards used to evaluate the design of online and blended courses. The Rubric is complete with annotations that explain the application of the standards and the relationship among them. A scoring system and set of online tools facilitate the evaluation by a team of reviewers.

Unique to the Rubric is the concept of alignment. This occurs when critical course components – Learning Objectives (2), Assessment and Measurement (3), Instructional Materials (4), Course Activities and Learner Interaction (5), and Course Technology (6) – work together to ensure students achieve desired learning outcomes. Specific standards included in Alignment are indicated in the Rubric annotations.

Yesterday, Online Learning Consortium released the Quality Scorecard 2014: Criteria for Excellence in the Administration of Online Programs. After 3 years of user study and feedback, the 2014 Quality Scorecard now has more indicators (75), a higher score potential and includes a scoring rubric in the updated handbook.

Upgrades to the interactive Scorecard provide clarity and eliminate redundancy, along with making the tool more robust and easier to use. Improvements include the ability to add co-authors for collaboration and a cleaner interface. The Quality Scorecard now includes indicators which address budget, including financial and people resources, plus unlimited file uploads for supporting documents.

Starting in July, QM is implementing a number of changes related to the course review process to improve the rigor of reviews and to provide more services to subscribers. These changes include naming protocols, new …

“Those teachers who are students of their own effects are the teachers who are the most influential in raising students’ achievement.”
~John Hattie (2008)
One of the largest influences on student satisfaction and/or success is a faculty …

How Does Group Work Relate to Student-to-Student Engagement and Overall Success of Course Design? Dr. Melissa Kaulbach and James Bryan Smith answer this question during this episode of Ed Tech Du Jour.

Dr. Joohi Lee, Associate Professor, College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Texas at Arlington, was a recipient of AP’s Faculty Research Grant in our 2012 round of proposals for her proposal, …

“Those teachers who are students of their own effects are the teachers who are the most influential in raising students’ achievement.”
~John Hattie (2008)
One of the largest influences on student satisfaction and/or success is a faculty …

“Those teachers who are students of their own effects are the teachers who are the most influential in raising students’ achievement.”
~John Hattie (2008)
One of the largest influences on student satisfaction and/or success is a faculty …

This article was originally written by Academic Partnerships Chairman and CEO, Randy Best, for Inside Higher Ed. Click here for the original post.
As the hype around MOOCs has subsided, a frequently asked question in …

It’s Quality Matters day! Each week, we highlight a Quality Matters standard and review its importance in an online course and how we evaluate this standard.
Today, we are reviewing Quality Matters Standards 1.8
General Standard 1 …

“Those teachers who are students of their own effects are the teachers who are the most influential in raising students’ achievement.”
~John Hattie (2008)
One of the largest influences on student satisfaction and/or success is a faculty …

“Those teachers who are students of their own effects are the teachers who are the most influential in raising students’ achievement.”
~John Hattie (2008)
One of the largest influences on student satisfaction and/or success is a faculty …

Anyone involved in the field of educational technology has probably run across headlines like this: “7 Tools That Will Change Education” or “10 Educational Apps Every Teacher Should Have”. I see them on Twitter almost …

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Developed by Academic Partnerships, Faculty eCommons is a social learning ecosystem for faculty across the world to work together to improve online education. The site offers industry research, guidance, best practices, and professional development, with a focus on national quality standards.